I got EQ7!!!

The other day EQ7 arrived at my door! For those of you who are not quilty, EQ7 is Electric Quilt 7, which is software to design my own quilts. I have wanted it since it came out last year. The pictures show a quilt I designed and made. I call it Spring At Last! and isn't it springy? When actually making the quilt I found that I did not have enough of the purple fabric to make the border so I skipped that part. I bound it in the same green I used in the sashing. It still has the binder clips on it for now because I will be taking it with me on election day to do the hand sewing. I am very excited about having EQ7 and I have already designed and saved several quilts, which may or may not ever be made. The more I work with it the more I learn. So far all I have done is combine blocks and put sashings and borders around them. There is so more more the program can do!

Quilt Retreat 2011

These were my nearest neighbors at the retreat last weekend. Debbie is there wearing her striped shirt, Lynn is in her white shirt, Kathleen is across from Lynn, and Shar Wiseman and her daughter were beside me. I don't remember the woman in the red shirt. There were quite a few people there that I don't know. I will add more pictures in the next few days.

I got a quilt top made at retreat. I was going to start another one but I didn't have all the fabric with me that I needed. Since I have been back home I have put the sewing machine in place but haven't used it yet. Some of the other stuff got put away already.

I am reorganizing my scrap fabrics in their bins. I thought I was doing well just having them separated by color but now I am folding them neatly and standing them on their edges so I can see them all at once. I am also separating out all the batiks into their own bin. After I get done with that job I am going thru all my yardage fabrics and separating by color on their hangers in the closet where they are kept.

I will still have too much stuff for the space I have but that's ok - I refuse to get rid of it!

Sorry!

I have definitely neglected this blog as of late! I hope to not do that again. I have certain blogs that I read regularly and I hate when they don't bother to post new entries! And now here I am doing that very thing!

Here is a picture of the quilt I am currently working on. Bonnie K. Hunter has posted this quilt on her blog since the middle of November, as a mystery. She would post one clue a week and her followers would work like crazy on that clue, so as to be caught up when the next clue was posted. She has now posted the entire quilt pattern and I bogged down at the end. I finally (today!) finished the center of the quilt and took this picture. I still need to trim the edges and sew on the inner border, which will probably be the brown half-square triangles around the blocks. After the brown inner border I have an entire pieced border to put on the quilt. I have the blocks pieced for the border already but not sewn together, so I still have quite a bit of work left to do before I can call this quilt finished. It is a beautiful quilt and I am glad I made it, but I did not like making the string blocks, and I don't think I would do that again. This is a heavy quilt top, with all these small pieces and lots and lots of seams! This quilt is totally out of my stash, in fact, mostly out of my scrap bins. I love making scrap quilts, not buying any fabric for them.

The other picture shows my quilt with Sam checking it out. I think he approves of it! He loves to get his picture taken.

Damien was here last night!

Here are pictures of Damien and Richard playing Rockem-Sockem Robots last night. They had a real good time playing with these and lego blocks and a lot of other toys. Damien and I played Mario on the Wii for hours. He is getting really good playing Mario, although I still have to carry him along sometimes. He gets to places he thinks he can't do it and makes me do it instead. When I am not there he is able to get thru these areas. It's the first time he was here for quite a while and we were shocked at how big he is! I bought him two new shirts and pants at JC Penney the other day and thought I got them too big but I didn't. I sent one outfit home with him and kept one here. Tiffany said he can still wear the boots I got him last winter, in fact had just grown into them. I knew I got them too big, but he could wear two pairs of socks with them. We love having him stop by.

Decorated for Christmas

This is what the house looks like this year. Richard and I started putting up the decorations last weekend but waited until Thanksgiving night to light them up. We put up everything except the five little spiral trees (we forgot about them, found them last night and Richard put them up today). I'd like to do it differently next year. We need to put something on the garage door because it is really dark over there. Maybe a lighted wreath or something.

Audrey and Jason have put up some really pretty decorations at their house too. Their spiral trees are new this year. I love it all lit up. After Christmas it seems so dark everywhere. I wish houses would have lights up year-round. It wouldn't have to be Christmas colors, just anything to light up the night.

Connect the Dots Finished!

I finished my Connect the Dots quilt today. This is a mystery quilt offered by Judy Laquidara on her blog the past month or so. I picked fabrics out of my stash for this quilt. They are the same fabrics Judy L. used for her quilt, except I used the maroon rather than the green. I just didn't have enough yardage in a green to do it. I like my colors, though, I think it made a rather masculine quilt. I think the design would be masculine unless you used very feminine colors. I got it done just in time! Bonnie K. Hunter is starting a new mystery quilt tomorrow morning and I will be ready, willing and able to get started with her! I have already pulled my fabrics and I can't wait.

RATS!

Since the twin house around back burned last April it has been sitting there with the windows covered (mostly). Some man bought it and has worked in it two days in the last month or so. We started seeing rats about two months ago tunnelling in the yard between the houses (the houses are only ten feet apart). Richard said they were under our house. We have killed a total of six rats so far. We bought two rat traps at Lowe's and caught a rat the first day we had them out there. After that, the rats ate the bait but the traps did not spring. We then bought a heavy duty rat trap and caught several with it. But -- a couple of nights ago I was awoken at 4am and I thought one of my cats was rolling a ball around my room, so I got up with my flashlight shining around. I couldn't find any cats in there so I figured it was a rat under the house. The trap was set just inside the opening under the house and that is right under my bed. Anyway, I told Richard about it first thing in the morning and he went to get it. He said it wasn't there, so he went further under the house looking for it. He found it about 15 feet from where it should be with the rat still alive. He didn't want to get it with bare hands so he went back later. He couldn't find it! He hasn't found it yet! Tom lent him a trap that he tied down with a rope. Hopefully, no more rats will get away now. I talked to the city a couple of weeks ago but I am going to call them again.